


About to Break

by wyvernsongs



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Coldflash Exchange 2018, Crack Treated Seriously, Fake/Pretend Relationship, Gen, Heist, Humor, M/M, Prison Break AU, barry's a hot mess, but not what you expect, other DC references
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-13
Updated: 2018-08-13
Packaged: 2019-06-17 12:46:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15461691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wyvernsongs/pseuds/wyvernsongs
Summary: Leonard and Barry find themselves in an old prison in the middle of Nowhere Louisiana when a new meta begins to stir up some trouble.





	About to Break

**Author's Note:**

  * For [StillNotGinger10](https://archiveofourown.org/users/StillNotGinger10/gifts).



> Hi DeeGee! ❤️❤️❤️ Hope you enjoy!   
> Prompt was "Prison Break AU".
> 
> A _huge_ thank you to the amazing [StillNotGinger10](https://archiveofourown.org/users/StillNotGinger10/pseuds/StillNotGinger10) for proofreading this for me last minute! 
> 
> Title is a reference to Linkin Park's 'One Step Closer'.
> 
> _Edit (4/18/19), explanation in endnotes._

A week after Leonard's most recent run in with Flash found him in Louisiana, a mere two states down from Missouri and Central City, with his sister and Mick. They were in a small town called Oakley for the trio's latest heist. The town had very little in the way of attractions, exactly one gas station, one small clinic, one inn, and the like. It was populated by a very small community of farmers and a slightly larger group from the town over--the epitome of an "everyone knows each other" town.

 

The pride of the town was the Iron Spittoon, the last standing wooden prison from the Wild West era. The city council of the town had the prison converted into a museum, featuring many stories they found in the preserved town records, dating back to the late 1700s. Leonard had gotten word that a specific gun, an ornate gold western Colt .45, had been transferred into the (admittedly barren and pathetic) museum for viewing. The story went like this: in the 19th century a legendary bounty hunter, Jonah Hex, the deadliest man alive, carried the gun with him for good luck as a trophy acquired from a past hit he had carried out. The gun supposedly will bring luck to whoever carries it around with them. How much water this story actually holds, Len doesn't know. Nor does he particularly care: the gun is a 'hot' item and will fetch the trio a pretty penny. Not to mention, there is slim to no chance that the Flash would be able to... _foil_ his evil plans.

 

The city hall and the museum were particularly ecstatic about having the honour of holding this gun, as it brought many tourists to Oakley. More tourists meant that Leonard, Lisa, and Mick would go unnoticed, which was exactly what Len was counting on.

 

-x-

 

"Hey, Lenny," Lisa began, as they passed through the swinging saloon doors of the prison museum. She eyed the wooden posts and pillars holding the place together with poorly disguised disdain; they had seen better days. She pointed a finger at one important beam in particular (the prison only had six, and two were curiously missing) that had a few daggers in it, trailing up to twice her height with a line of museum rope around it. A large clunky sign that said "this is where Billy the kid tried to break out by climbing up and busting out of the roof" hung off of the rope.

 

She studiously didn't look at one the support pillar that had a handsaw caught precariously in the middle of it, higher than anyone could reach without a ladder.

 

"Do you think this is the safest place?" She muttered to him.

 

Len waved his hand. "This place has been standing for a couple hundred years already. I'm sure one more day won't cause it to come crashing on everyone's heads," he placated with an amused look in her direction. She was eyeing the dirt floor, there was a suspicious dark spot and an acrid smell that one of the kids running around was most likely responsible for.

 

Mick, on Lisa's other side, pointed at a labeled attraction in one of the small locked barred cells; there were five bent rusty spoons on the wall and an arrow pointing to a large hole that went under the building's wall and to the outside, "That's funny."

 

Lisa leaned forward to read the excerpt that was pinned onto the cell door, "Billy the Kid strikes once more, makes his first successful escape attempt, after 37 unsuccessful ones. His accomplices got away. Billy was picked up not three hours later, having been distracted by a dog.”

 

"That's even better." Mick chucked.

 

-x-

 

"Cisco, we're supposed to be looking for," Barry leaned in and waved his hand in the air next to him carelessly, "that ridiculously named meta, not waste time here."

 

Cisco waved his hands back at Barry, "Stop worrying about things. And her name is Pecker. You know, with the whole 'wood eating' thing she supposedly has."

 

"Right, okay. I don't see why she'd be _here_ of all places. There's a lot more wooden establishments in the town over, and--hey, you probably shouldn't touch that," Barry rushed out, as Cisco knocked on one of the shoddy display cases hung on a rusty wire, causing it to tip. Both Barry and Cisco rushed forward and grabbed a corner, keeping it steady. Barry drew in a deep, relieved breath.

 

Cisco cleared his throat. "She's been spotted in the area, or more like demolished buildings have been spotted in _this_ town--ones that have suspiciously rotted away. Sounds like her M.O. And, that man said he saw her," he nodded his head at a bored looking museum worker sitting at one of the display counters. "As well as that guy we bumped into outside of the inn we left our stuff at."

 

"The only thing that makes this a real lead is the fact that her brother lives in this county. That man was seven sheets to the wind, and he didn't even look at the picture you showed him," Barry pointed out, turning away from the display of 'Items Inmates Used as Weapons'.

 

"Right, and her job was antiques, and this is a museum. It's a good a shot as any." Cisco reasoned.

 

"This _museum_ ," Barry looked around at the rather small prison, "is an accident waiting to happen." He pointed up and Cisco followed his gaze, "Those lights? Installed recently. You see the splitting wood from the nails on that support beam?"

 

Cisco sucked in a breath, "Yeaaah. No. No, that's not questionable or dangerous at all--is that an AC unit shoved into the fireplace?"

 

"We should, uh, probably leave while we still can," Barry hedged.

 

"No, no, wait. I heard they let this museum hold Jonah Hex’s gun," Cisco enthused. "We have to _at least_ see that first before we go. It being transferred here is apparently the biggest thing that's happened to this town in the last ten years." Barry vaguely remembered the name from the many historical western movies he and Cisco had watched with Joe in their last movie night.

 

"Why in the world would anyone let this museum hold anything like..." Barry trailed off, and then shook his head. "Fine, we look at this gun, and then we leave and go look for Termite."

 

" _Pecker_." Cisco corrected, "And deal."

 

-x-

 

"Look alive, boys, I smell trouble." Lisa spoke, and tossed her hair over her shoulder, indicating one Cisco Ramon and an incredulous looking Barry Allen hunching over a glass case display.

 

Len hummed, took the baseball hat off of his head, and offered it to Mick. Mick dutifully put it on and quirked his brow at his partner. "Lisa, the moment they step apart, distract Ramon. I'll distract his little nerd friend. Mick, you'll have to find what we came for solo. Let them assume we're on a sibling get away."

 

"Sounds good, boss," Mick acquiesced. He let himself drift away into the large crowd the museum had drawn that day. The amount of people filling the small prison was way over the maximum occupancy, but Len was sure that the management let it slide, seeing as they barely got any business on a normal day.

 

Lisa tilted her head, "You think our boy in red will come if Cisco calls?"

 

"Oh, there's no doubt about it. Your nerd is a real _Lois Lane_." Len drawled out, teasing Lisa.

 

Lisa smiled a shark’s smile, "Looks like I'll have to swoop in and nab him before Superman can."

 

"This is work, not play, Lise,” Len reminded her.

 

"You're no fun, brother-mine." His sister gave a playful eye roll. "Wonder what he's doing two states away." Lisa frowned in thought, tapping her finger to her lips.

 

"There was reported to be some kind of meta around this county. I suppose they're trying to narrow down the meta's whereabouts. I wouldn't worry about it for now. Let's keep an eye on them." Len told her.

 

Lisa gave a cheeky two fingered salute and drifted off into the crowd, making her way towards Cisco and his friend, planning to hover and nab her nerd when Barry looked away.

 

-x-

 

"Um, I'm sorry, ma'am. I'm not sure what you're talking about," Barry smiled apologetically at the woman that had accosted him suddenly. He had been paying attention to what Cisco had been raving excitedly about, and didn't realise that the woman (who was uncomfortably close to him) was actually talking _to_ him. A quick glance to his left revealed Cisco to be suddenly missing. He probably just didn't want to deal with the woman in front of Barry, the jerk.

 

"Now, young man, I know you must have your teen fun with this little summer job," The woman patronised, and Barry internally groaned. He cursed how young he supposedly looked to others. "But I know you work here. You're McPherson's son. _And_ you're wearing that _ridiculous_ shirt."

 

Barry looked down to the shirt Cisco had insisted they buy a matching pair of in the tiny tourist shop outside of the prison museum. "Ah, this isn't a work uniform, and I'm not a teenager. I'm twenty-five." He tried to explain, until he saw someone wearing the same shirt with a nametag clipped onto it. ...Apparently they sold their work t-shirt as tourist merchandise. Lovely.

 

"Nice try, Jeb. Now, I want my children's tickets refunded. My sons are simply not having _any_ fun," the woman, and the apparent mother of (at least) one of the children running around and shoving each other in the corner near the weapon's display, told him.

 

"I'm sorry, I can't refund you," Barry told her, simply, with a pleasant smile.

 

"I want to speak to your manager," the woman informed him snidely. Barry's smile turned strained when he realised this woman would probably not leave him alone.

 

"I'm sorry, does there seem to be a problem here?" A familiar smooth voice crooned out, and Barry jumped when an arm was slung casually over his shoulder.

 

Barry turned his head to look at the smirking face of one Captain Cold, sans the get-up. "Snart, what are you--"

 

"What _sweet_ pet names you have for me, Barr," Len told him, sarcastically, then turned to the now agitated looking woman, "I'd love it if you would leave my significant other alone. We're trying to enjoy our road trip." He explained to her in a faux peppy voice, "Let's go, _dear_ ," Len cut off whatever she was going to say by tugging Barry away with the arm he had around him.

 

"Significant other?" Barry asked quietly when they had lost her in the crowd.

 

Len quirked a smile in Barry's direction. "Why, we've had _dates_ before, haven't we, Scarlet?" Len asked him, referring to their 'play days' as Cold and Flash. Barry sputtered, flushing.

 

"You even covered my dinner the other day," Len reminded him, waggling his eyebrows.

 

"I would hardly call that a date. You walked out on me, first of all." Barry mumbled, flushing further when he realised Len hadn't removed his arm.

 

"Ah yes, but _you_ just wanted to _use_ me," Len accused, and Barry rolled his eyes in response.

 

"I suppose we'll have to try again, then," Barry joked.

 

"I hear they have a cute little saloon down the road," Len suggested.

 

"Wait, are you being serious?" Barry stopped walking to wherever Snart had been leading him, and turned his body to look at him. Len guided Barry back to face the other direction as he, unknown to Barry, was hiding Mick's noticeable figure prowling around in a sparser section of the crowd.

 

"Snart--" Barry started, slightly agitated.

 

"Len," Leonard corrected.

 

Barry huffed, "Fine. What are you up to?"

 

"What? A brother can't take his sister on a road trip every now and then?" Len spoke, innocently.

 

" _Riiiiight,_ like I'm supposed to believe this is a cute little road trip," Barry raised an eyebrow at Len, who gave a convincing innocent little confused tilt of the head.

 

"Now, Scarlet, what _else_ would it be? I do have a life outside of my job," Len informed. Barry just gave him a blank look.

 

"Listen, you know that what you do isn't technically considered a _job_ but," Barry stopped talking when Len held his free hand up suddenly. He gave the older man an exasperated look.

 

"Do you hear that?" Len asked him, seriously. Barry paused to listen, there was a weird silence and uneasy sweeping through the crowd around them. All of a sudden, there was a shrill laugh, and a concerning creaking sound. Alarmed, Barry looked up at a pillar that was deteriorating at the point it met with the ceiling beam.

 

"Len, I--"

 

Len quickly pulled them in between two taller display cabinets and crowded him against the wooden wall. "Go on, hero," he said.

 

Barry smiled gratefully at Len, who was giving him cover, and phased through the wall. Immediately after Barry disappeared, Len whipped around pushed his way through the now panicking crowd to find his sister. He found her near the entrance with an annoyed looking Cisco. She had one of her arms hooked with his, and Len spared the thought of _accidentally_ stepping on the nerd's foot before deeming that as wasted energy.

 

" _Lady Termite,_ seriously? That's a really lame name," Len heard Cisco say. Ignoring that, Len lightly touched Lisa's forearm. "What's going on?" he asked, leaning in to murmur in her ear when she turned to look at him.

 

She looked back at the slightly crazed looking and still cackling lady in a mud brown jumpsuit. "She walked in and started monologuing. Now she's doing whatever the hell noise _that_ is. She's the meta you told us not to worry about," Lisa gave her brother a _look_ , "Although, I have to say, her power works rather.... slow."

 

The pillar gave another loud creak as it finally detached from the ceiling, and began to fall.

 

"Yeah, don't think making fun of the wood meta is going to give us any points," Cisco told them, eyes glued to the ceiling, which had begun to rot in multiple places.

 

-x-

 

Thankfully, Barry had his suit stored in a bag at the local inn, so it was an easy grab-and-go. When he reached his room, he phased through his clothes and put his suit on on the same manner, saving precious time.

 

In a flash, pun definitely intended, he was back at the museum just in time to clear out a group of people that the falling support pillar would have crushed. He quickly started evacuated the rest of the crowd, as the building slowly crumbled.

 

With another deafening creak, the second middle pillar fell, causing the central support beam to crack and fall inwards. The rot from other sections of the ceiling caused various wooden panels to come loose with the loss of the central support. In less than a second before the central beam hit the floor, Flash had emptied the prison, save for the meta--Pecker, Cisco called her. She was still. Cackling. Feeling slightly weary, Flash walked slowly over to the middle pillar, where there was now a huge gap in the ceiling and he was sure nothing else would fall on his head, and watched for what she would do next. Behind him, the back wall fell outward taking the small section of ceiling connected to the wall with it. Pecker didn't seem to notice, still caught up in her glee, causing the dark... rot--were those tiny little termites? Barry didn't want to think about it too closely--to spread to the other walls that were bowing inwards.

 

'Criminal metas these days...' Barry thought, 'are getting uncomfortably close to storybook villains.'

 

-x-

 

After the members of the museum crowd were set down outside, most of the people ran for the hills. Only a small group stayed nearby, out of sheer curiosity or amazement.

 

Cisco stuck to Lisa's side, as did Len. The long haired scientist jumped when he heard a rumbling voice behind them.

 

"Well, _that_ was exciting," Mick deadpanned. Len just huffed at him in response. Mick gave a smug look at his partner, "Y'all stay for the fall out and distract Red Wonder. I'll meet you back in Central." Len nodded, knowing that Mick was going to find arrangements for their newly acquired prize.

 

Mick nodded his head back, and gave a short wave to Lisa, before turning and making his way to where Len had stashed the bike, figuring Len would take the car back with his sister.

 

"...What are you three up to?" Cisco asked, squinting at Lisa.

 

"Aw, don't worry about it, sweetie," Lisa cooed at him in answer.

 

Len turned to stand towards the deteriorating prison, crossing his arms.

 

"Wow, if I knew any better, I'd almost say you look concerned," Cisco ribbed, and then squeaked when a glare was sent his way. Both their attentions were drawn to the wooden prison as the last of the walls fell in, the noise echoing all around them.

 

A crackle of lightning burst into the centre of the crowd, and Flash materialised with a knocked out Lady Termite--Pecker or whatever her name was--in his arms and lowered her down onto the ground gently.

 

The crowd was silent for half a beat, before one of them started clapping, and it caught on. Flash looked at them incredulously.

 

"My _hero_!" Len called loudly, marching up to Flash theatrically, grabbing him by the shoulder and waist, dipping him, and kissed him full on the hero's lips. When Barry wrapped an arm around Len's shoulder and kissed back, Cisco promptly covered his eyes and groaned, feeling major second-hand embarrassment for his friend. He looked to his sides and notice several people in the lingering crowd pull out their phones. _That_ would be difficult to explain back in Central. At least Leonard didn't have his signature parka on. Maybe people _won't_ recognise him and know their city's hero was snogging his nemesis.

 

" _Seriously_? I know I teased him about having a crush, but I didn't think he'd full on makeout session with the guy," Cisco half-whined. Lisa put her pinkies to her lips and let out a loud wolf-whistle. The loud noise startled Flash to fall backwards and land on his ass, face flushed as red as his suit.

 

"Lighten up, Cisco, they've given this town the story of the week," Lisa teased.

 

"Yeah, no, I'm never letting him live this down," Cisco laughed out.

 

"Now that his 'no play, only work' rule has been lifted, why don’t we blow this popsicle stand?" Lisa offered.

 

"Other than the fact I think it's already been," Cisco flailed an arm to the rubble of the prison museum, "Ah, blown. And I didn't get a chance to see Hex's gun."

 

"I'm sure it'll turn up," Lisa reassured him, "So, I have a room at the inn, if you wanted to... come over."

 

Cisco didn't stand a chance.

 

-x-

 

Len squatted down next to Barry, who accepted his fate on the ground. Catching Barry's eye, Len quirked his lips. "Seems to me like you owe me another date."

 

Barry bit his lip. "Mm, okay. Let me change out of this."

 

"Nah, I bet if you show up to the diner like that, we could get a free dinner." Len wiggled his eyebrows at Barry, making him laugh.

 

"You're on."

 

**Author's Note:**

> I had so much fun with this. :)
> 
> _Edit: so I wrote this for the coldflash exchange a year ago. But the person I gifted it to/was assigned, who was also active in the exchange, never read this or said anything after? Which kinda killed my moral and my desire to write anything afterwards. Like. Part of me thought maybe they did read it, but thought it was shit? And so then I started thinking my writing was shit. And I've spent the last year in a writer's block. So I've ungifted this from the original person. I'm sorry if that's taboo or anything, but. I just need to do right by me and my own creative muse at this point. And this has been like a figurative chain around my hands or something. Anyway, I'm gonna let myself let this go, stop wallowing, and learn to love my writing again._


End file.
